HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE
WOULD WILLINGLY ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR
Again and again as he ran Kendric shouted to Betty that he was coming.
Then at last, after an agony of fear and silence, he heard her call in
answer. He stumbled but ran on. When he came where he could see the
square of light marking the hole which led to the level where she was,
he caught his first glimpse of Betty. She was standing by the opening,
tense to the finger tips that were tight about the rifle. He sped up
the steps and to her side. And he was treated to the sight of Ruiz
Rios, lying white-faced on the floor, a hand at his shoulder and that
hand dyed red. Beside him, where it had fallen, was his revolver.
"I--I shot him!" Betty gasped.
"And serves him right," cried Kendric heartily. He took the gun from
her hands and strode over to Rios while, at last, Betty's face was
hidden by her shaking hands. "So you're on the job, are you?"
Rios looked sick and miserable. But slowly, as he lifted his black
eyes to the man standing over him the old evil fires played in them.
He stirred a little and lay back.
"My shoulder is broken," he groaned.
"You're in luck to be alive," Kendric told him sternly. "What do you
want here?"
"I'll bleed to death!" Quick fright sent a shiver through him. "For
the love of God stop the blood for me."
Kendric could scarcely do less than look at the wound. Presently he
straightened up with a grunt of disgust.
"It's only a flesh wound," he said coolly. "The bone isn't even
touched and it's a clean hole. You'll last for a lot of devilment yet."
Rios sat up. He felt of his hurt with tender fingers and slowly the
fear went out of his look and his old craft and hate came back.
"You've found the treasure--here," he said. "You will have to talk
with me before you touch it, señor."
"You talk big, Rios," snapped Kendric angrily. "It strikes me that you
are just now in no position to dictate. You should thank your stars
if, presently, we let you go about your business. Whether or not we
have found treasure does not concern you."
So intent was he upon Rios, so occupied with considering what was to be
done with him, that he did not note who it was who had come to stand in
the narrow cleft between them and the entrance from the cañon side.
But Betty, her hands dropping from her horrified face saw.
"Oh," cried Betty. "We are lost!"
Then he saw that following Rios had come Zoraida and that she stood and
looked at them, her eyes filled with mockery and triumph.
"Who is it that speaks of what shall be done with that which rightfully
is Zoraida's?" she demanded, her voice ringing out boldly. "And you
two, who thought to escape me, I have you in a trap!"
Kendric swung his rifle about so that the muzzle was towards her. His
eyes hardened.
"If we have to shoot our way out of this, we're going free," he told
her shortly.
Zoraida's only answer came quickly, unexpectedly, before he could step
forward. Her hand went to her bosom; out came her silver whistle; a
blast shrilled forth from it, loud and penetrating.
"Twenty of my men, all armed, hear that," she said defiantly. "They
are just below. Listen and you will hear them coming."
The sound, first of men's voices somewhere outside, then of rattling
stones under running feet, told that Zoraida spoke truly. Kendric
heard and for an instant was struck motionless with indecision. The
entrance was narrow and he could make a fight for it--there was Betty
to think of, behind him but in the path of glancing bullets--there was
Rios, wounded but treacherous--there was Zoraida--there was the
treasure below and he had no mind to see it snatched from under his
eyes--
Then the one chance presented itself to him, clear and imperative.
"Rios," he commanded, "down you go through that hole or I swear to God
I'll blow your brains out! Quick! And Zoraida, you with him." He
sprang upon her and dragged her with him, shoving her toward the
opening in the floor. He took time then to whirl and fire one shot
along the narrow way which Zoraida's men must come, confident that they
would pause, if only for an instant. "Down, Rios. Down, Zoraida!"
A sort of fury looked out of his eyes and even Betty drew back from him
fearfully. He grasped Rios by the shoulder and the Mexican seeing the
look in his eyes made no resistance. Had he fought back he would have
been killed and he knew it. He went down the steps. Zoraida would
have held back but again Kendric's hand, rough on her arm, sent her
forward and, rather than fall, she was forced to Rios's heels. Kendric
fired again along the cleft. Then he began knocking loose the stones
which held the lever-rock back. When only one stone kept the boulder
in place, he called sharply to Betty:
"Down we go with them. Then I'll knock that stone out from below and
we'll have time to breathe before they come on us."
"But," exclaimed Betty, "can we lift it again from below?"
"God knows," he returned. "I think so. But I don't know that we'll
have to; I think there's another way out. Hurry."
Voices were calling excitedly from without. Plainly the men taking
Zoraida's pay would in time steel themselves to making an entrance, but
just as plainly they saw death in store for some of them and hesitated.
It struck Kendric that their delay would give him time for one other
thing and that that other thing would mean much more time gained later
on. He scooped up handful after handful of dirt and poured it into the
lever-hole in the boulder, filling it even with the surface. Thus, it
would not be readily detected and might never be noted. Then,
snatching up his rifle and the bag of food, he ran down the steps with
Betty. A thrust with his rifle barrel, and a quick jerk back, knocked
the wedge stone free and saved him his gun. The boulder toppled back
into place; the stairway and tunnel below were plunged into absolute
darkness.
Kendric caught Betty's hand.
"This way," he told her. "It's straight going and no danger for a
while. Rios, Zoraida! Stand where you are and wait for us or I'll
start shooting wild. Where are you?"
"Here," growled Rios, his voice indicating that he had gone no great
distance.
"And Zoraida?"
Zoraida did not answer. Kendric went on a step or two and then struck
a match. By its short-lived light he made out Zoraida standing close
to Rios. Then the flame burned out.
"Straight ahead," commanded Kendric. When there was no sound of a step
being taken, he drew Betty's hand through his arm so as to have both of
his hands free and went forward.
"I can hardly breathe," whispered Betty. He felt her hand tighten on
his arm. "It is getting terribly steep underfoot----"
He came to where Rios was and set the rifle barrel in the small of his
back. Rios cursed bitterly but moved on. Kendric's hand found
Zoraida's arm and gripped it tightly.
"We're all together in this," he said sharply. "And don't start your
old favorite knife act. This is no time for foolery."
Zoraida moved on. But again she set her whistle to her lips and
thereafter she called out loudly to her men, commanding them to follow
swiftly.
"They won't hear you," said Kendric. "And they couldn't obey you this
time anyhow. Hurry; we'll all stifle if we don't get out of this foul
air. Rios, give me some matches; mine are getting short."
Rios, without comment, having as little love as another for the
uncertainty of the dark about him, did as he was commanded. He also
saved half of his box and began striking them himself. And thus they
went on, all of them save Kendric wondering. Making the last, steepest
descent, they stood huddled together in the treasure chamber.
"Here," said Kendric, releasing Zoraida, "we have fresh air. Here we
can talk. And, if we are sensible people, a new day can begin for all
of us here."
Ruiz Rios's wound must have been even less severe than Kendric had
supposed it. For now the Mexican seemed utterly to have lost
consciousness of it. He was striking fresh matches; he stooped and
picked up something at his foot; a little gasp broke from him. He
tossed it down, caught up something else.
"Gold!" he muttered. "Gold everywhere!"
Zoraida looked about her, seeming unmoved. Her eyes followed Rios
contemptuously, roved away about the room, tarried only briefly with
the heaped-up treasure, sped to Kendric and to Betty.
"You are fools, fools!" she taunted them. "All thanks, Señor Kendric,
for having led me straight to that for which I have been looking all my
life."
Rios had come back to her side, both hands full.
"Zoraida," he said swiftly, "let us talk reason as the American says.
We have this!" He held up his hands; his eyes gloated. "Let them have
their lives and go, so that they take nothing in their hands. Look at
this! Here----"
His words trailed off abruptly in a scream of terror. He had moved
only a trifle as he spoke, he had taken a step backward between the two
high heaps of treasure where the pit was. He was falling--he threw out
his arms, clutching wildly. In a flash he was gone from sight. But
not alone. For his hand, seeking to save him, had caught at Zoraida
and she was snatched back, overbalanced, drawn down with him. Her
scream rose above his cry of terror. Both vanished and Jim and Betty
stood alone, looking into each other's wide eyes.
"Do you think--they are dead?" faltered the girl.
They went to the hole and looked down. The view which Kendric had seen
before slowly disentangled itself from the darkness. They saw nothing
of those who had fallen.
"It would mean the short fall here," said Kendric musingly, "the steep
slide and no doubt another drop at the end. We wouldn't be able to see
them at first. But someway, I don't believe they are dead!"
He did not explain then; it would take too long and they had their own
salvation to work out. But here was his thought: Zoraida had dropped
back into the gardens of the golden king. He did not believe she would
be able to climb up this way again. And he did not believe that she
would have with her the many keys needed to open the way she knew. It
impressed him that here might be the judgment of a just God--Zoraida
immured for all time in the heart of ancient Mexico. Zoraida with her
priests and young men and children whom her stern decree had imprisoned
here. Zoraida and Ruiz Rios together in the place of hidden treasure.